Shirt

Had a meeting with Department Member A very early in the morning-freshly shaved and in an ironed shirt I felt extremely optimistic,that is,until I stepped into The Department Room.The receptionist,a young guy in red Converse shoes greeted me with a hanging frown and a weepy eyes-seconds later an old woman dressed like death hovered past and the receptionist guy hollered "Hey Marcia" with his mouth barely opened and seedy blue eyes fluttering dispassionately.Then it was time for the meeting,during which A smiled once only accidentally when he was trying to pick out something from his teeth and one side of his mouth perked up.It was going nowhere,this discussion.I kept trying to explain this and that and saying our organization is keen to offer our utmost support and participation and generic lines like that-usually I'm very enthusiastic for meetings and the happy,jolly side of me surfaces to play the wanted role-but this was disastrous,he kept saying "But what do you anticipate?".And every time I tried to answer we'd get lost on some crazy trail and with that he came across as a deeply unhappy man,or probably just really stressed,I think i'll send him flowers and sweets anonymously before our next meeting.

The there was the lunchtime event-H told me the night before to print one copy of this sheet out and bring it for the event,I showed the sheet to T who said "We need copies" so I rushed to the library and under record time photocopied and cut up a shitload worth of flyers.I gave myself a secret pat on the back for being so amazing.Then I brought them to T,who looked pleased at first but then questioned "Why are they all in different sizes?".Then I suddenly noticed how bizzare the sizes were,there were about 10 different sizes and the corners were all zig-zaggy and some were completely unusable.So I stacked them according to size,finally getting this block pyramid structure of flyers-and T just said "Uh,okay".

3pm,time for Department Member B.This time I was determined to work the magic of the ironed shirt-some good had to come out of this,so I walked in open-chested and striding and sort of hit my knee on the reception counter.Behind this counter was the large,curvy Angela who was very helpful and when she went to fetch B I took two handfuls of lollipops from the big cardboard box of lollies on the counter and stuffed them in my bag.B was nice and kind and generous and I think I actually puked out all this absurd adjectives while he was talking because he really was really nice and kind and generous.He kept offering things like a spot on their website,and then he was like I know this guy from this faculty so I could get you on their website too and you could list your events or put your link up and all that.The whole time I was smiling like a kid who had just tasted ice-cream for the first-time,and when the meeting ended I felt like giving him a hug.Which I didn't of course,he might think I was a freak or something.I just said "You're an angel!" and I think that was only half weird.

So uni was done for the day,I came back and in my email inbox was a message titled "Advice from Bill Gates" mum sent me.It was full of things like "Follow the rules they put in school" and "Listen to your wise elders" so I was like Ma did you write this and she said No I just forwarded you,it's from the famous Bill Gates and I replied the famous Bill Gates would never say things like this and she said How would you know and I'm like Because he's famous.Which hardly made any sense,I think.

So,a good Tuesday all in all.And it was cold so I there were no sweaty armpits to ruin my ironed shirt with spots of ew.Time to try those lollies.